strong supporter of the Vichy regime). To historians who claim that his democratic pronouncements between 1936 and 1939 prove that he was not fascist (and that those who supported him, including former members of the CF, believed this as well), Soucy notes that La Rocque was not the only European fascist of the era who chose to pursue a democratic path to power when a paramilitary coup was unrealistic. Hitler made the same calculation after the Munich putsch of 1923 and came to power "legally" a decade later. Soucy emphasizes that the "fluidity" of fascist ideology and tactics defies historians who insist on imposing static taxonomies on "fascism in motion." A major example of such fluidity in Italian fascism occurred when Benito Mussolini, once a leading member of the Italian Socialist Party, turned sharply to the political Right after his national "syndicalist" Fascio suffered a huge defeat in the Italian elections of 1919. Soucy is also critical of definitions of fascism that require fascists—in order to be considered fascists—to behave before they came to power in as "totalitarian" a fashion as they had after they came to power (both Mussolini and Hitler had once been electoral politicians). For Soucy, too many historians have attempted to white-wash the CF/PSF by defining fascism in such an unhistorical way, taking at face value La Rocque's "democratic" rhetoric after the CF (at least its paramilitary formations) was outlawed in 1936. Soucy disagrees as well with historians who claim that La Rocque was too "moderate" to be a fascist, that he believed in "republican legality", disapproved of political violence, was a political democrat, and was opposed to anti-Semitism. Soucy's rebuttal includes the following.. In 1935 La Rocque condemned moderates ["les modérés"] for falling prey to "compromise and hesitation" and called upon the French people to stand up against the threat of Communist revolution and "its sordid ally moderation." In 1941, La Rocque reminded his readers of the "many times" in the past that he had "condemned moderates", adding that "They are dainty persons. They are weak persons" ["Ce sont gens de mignardise. Ce sont gens de mollesse."]. In the winter of 1935–1936, La Rocque concluded that circumstances were not favorable for a paramilitary coup and chose to pursue an electoral path to power—despite telling his troops at the time that "even the idea of soliciting a vote nauseates me"). "Hitlerism", he reminded them "became a